Central Valley's varsity boys basketball team welcomed the challenge of competing against Western Athletic Conference championship contenders Ceres High and Patterson this past week.

The Bulldogs and Tigers bested the Hawks by a combined 33 points.

"I'm disappointed with the effort," Central Valley head coach Darryl Dickson said. "We didn't make it hard for them to beat us. We're a better team than that."

The Hawks lost 62-39 to the crosstown-rival Bulldogs in a battle for first place in the WAC at home Friday night.

"We had the right game plan," Dickson said. "Our kids didn't execute it. That's why Ceres won."

Central Valley (7-12, 3-2) dropped to second place in conference play.

Ceres High (12-9, 4-1) remained in a tie for first place in the WAC standings with Patterson.

Hawk Harinder Sidhu totaled a team-high 11 points versus the Bulldogs.

Gurshan Chahal and Max Sanchez contributed seven and six points, respectively.

Ralph Afortunado and James Benites chipped in with four points apiece.

Daniel Villasenor had three points.

Karnveer Chahal and Oso Fregoso both added two points.

Central Valley shot 25 percent (5 of 20) while struggling mightily from the free-throw line.

Cristian Garcia tallied a game-high 17 points and 14 rebounds to lead Ceres High.

Haaydn Martinez, Ismael Ontiveros and Inder Sandhu collected 13, 12 and 10 points, respectively.

Nick Jones and Gurraj Purewal added six and four points.

Ceres High shot 80 percent (20 of 25) from the foul line.

The Hawks were outscored 35-20 by the Bulldogs during the middle periods.

Ceres High improved its head-to-head record versus Central Valley to 11-11.

Patterson earned a hard-fought 61-51 victory while battling Central Valley on Wednesday in Ceres.

The Hawks lost despite making 10 3-pointers.

"We had a great opportunity and gave it away," Dickson said. "We didn't play with a sense of urgency. I'm surprised we played afraid."

Patterson outscored Central Valley 19-7 during the fourth quarter, including 13-3 in the final three-plus minutes.

"We had three defensive errors in a row," Dickson said. "That's not Central Valley basketball. We put in too much time to make those mistakes."

Sidhu poured in 17 of his team-high 21 points in the opening half.

Harinder buried five treys.

Gurshan Chahal made three treys and totaled 11 points.

Afortunado drained two treys en route to tallying eight points.

Karnveer Chahal and David Serrano netted six and five points, respectively.